Saturday, February 24, 2007

CHRISTOPHER JONES, Penciller for BATMAN STRIKES, Part 4

BAT-BLOG ~What was your 1st official job working w/ comic books? Also, How did you start with DC?

CHRIS ~ I got that first job drawing Street Heroes 2005 through the writer, Steve Jones. Another artist had originally been assigned to the book, and Steve suggested me as a replacement, since we'd done some amateur work together and we'd known each other for years. I did a couple of sample pages, and got the job! That book only lasted three issues, but it got my foot in the door and one job led to another. I did a number of jobs for both Eternity comics and Caliber Press over the next two or three years.

After several years in the "minor leagues" writing and drawing comics for many smaller publishers, I managed to get work at DC doing fill-ins on a title called Young Heroes in Love. I'd tried to get work with Warner Brothers Animation the year before and had some samples in my portfolio done in the style of Batman: The Animated Series. That didn't work out, but the editor and writer of Young Heroes in Love saw those samples and thought I would be a good fit on YHIL because the regular artist on that book drew it in a somewhat cartoony style.

I drew four issues of Young Heroes before that book ended, and that led to a number of Justice League related stories for that same editor. These were mainly short stories for various Justice League anthologies for the DCU and were drawn in a more traditional superhero style, and then I ended up doing several issues of Justice League Adventures, which meant a return to the animation look for me. At the time that title had no set creative team, just a rotating pool or writers and artists, so when I heard that there was going to be a new Batman animated series, I started asking around as to whether there would be a tie-in comic, who would be editing that, and if I could get on that book. Well, I got the job, and have been the regular artist on it ever since. As of this writing, I've drawn almost 30 issues.